riding around many twisty roads roads today even after ownign my gt for only a few months i am so shocked how good cornering is...but do i wonder is it me and my riding style or the semi active suspension making the diffrence would i have the same comfidence on conventinal suspension. then again my last bike was a cb1300 so complety diffrent suspesion and chassis.

GT1290?? they are a very good handling motorcycle, the Semi active suspension is very good, but not brilliant, there is room for improvement on the first (2016) GTs, a little more rear rebound dampning would go along way to improving it, but over all, a great handling motorcycle. (in sport mode )

gt1290 yer that my computer auttocorecting me. mines 2017 so i duno if that had suspension updates?? and well i go round any local roads i know with confidence that i havent had in a while even though my cb1300 was praised for beign a good handler i didnt exaclty push her as it was jsut a slightly updated 30yr old design
twin shock basic frame etc etc i go into corners thinking that corner i could lean harder or go a bit faster next time

Yeah, I'd agree any of the current sporty tourer's would be light years ahead of the old school CB1300 (1970's design).

The 2017 GT didn't get any major updates...... it got LED rear indicators (I have a 2017 GT)...... possibly some internal revisions to front forks (from WP) otherwise it looks identical to the 16GT.

The 2018 model is just a new paint scheme as far as I can tell, however the 2019 model gets a major update to suspension (still WP but with three times faster sensor control), headlight (LED), screen(shape & more adjustment) and side panels as well as up-down quickshifter. The 019 model uses the SDR motor but the difference between our GT motor and the SDR is only a couple of KW and Nm..... so it's still a mighty powerful bike whichever model you buy

The 016-017 damping and spring rates might have been a little off, but with more miles they settle enough to use Sport damping most of the time - the GT handles well because it is light, powerful enough and has great steering geometry and riding position . The only improvement I made was to fit a 40 tooth rear sprocket.

yer it does handle great and i seen alto about that 2019 model but i only got mine march of this year so bit of a tease from ktm. mien good enough honestly im sure the 19 thign is great. could they put the updated software on the older suspension??